Marked for Mehdi Dejagah
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Boardroom7 Jun 2027
Amir Ghoddos has until the next board meeting
What was said behind closed doors has now been said in front of a microphone. Everybody at Rah Ahan can do the arithmetic, including the man it is aimed at.
Market7 Jun 2027
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
Market7 Jun 2027
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
Market7 Jun 2027
The name of Ali Torabi has come up in conversations Rah Ahan were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
Squad7 Jun 2027
Shahriar Noorafkan was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Squad7 Jun 2027
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Alireza Dejagah commits to Rah Ahan for another 3 years.
Squad7 Jun 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Ahmad Hosseini, and the manager let it.
Squad7 Jun 2027
When it matters, Ali Torabi plays
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
Market7 Jun 2027
“They were honest with me, and I would rather know.” Mehdi Dejagah has been informed he is not in the manager's thinking at Rah Ahan.
In brief
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Boardroom
Rah Ahan pull $63.5K back off the table
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Boardroom
Rah Ahan were not finished after all
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market31 May 2027
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
Squad31 May 2027
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Rah Ahan this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad31 May 2027
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Boardroom24 May 2027
The silence upstairs is getting loud at Rah Ahan
Nobody on the board has said anything against the manager, which is the point — they have stopped saying anything for him either.
Market24 May 2027
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
Squad24 May 2027
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Rah Ahan this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Loan watch24 May 2027
“I watch every Rah Ahan game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Sepahan runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
Squad24 May 2027
Vahid Hajsafi falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Squad24 May 2027
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Shahriar Noorafkan trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Boardroom26 Apr 2027
The scrutiny sharpens at Rah Ahan
Nobody upstairs has said anything, which is the loudest thing they could do. Results buy silence in this game; the account at Rah Ahan is running low.
Market26 Apr 2027
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
Squad26 Apr 2027
Shahriar Noorafkan was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Squad26 Apr 2027
Words at Rah Ahan training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ali Karimi is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Squad26 Apr 2027
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
Loan watch26 Apr 2027
“I am grateful for the games, but I did not become a footballer to be somebody else's spare part.” He wants to be at Rah Ahan, and 1 appearances in 37 say he has earned the hearing.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Player ratings4 Jan 2027
Successful dribbles: 55. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
The terraces4 Jan 2027
The mood at Naft Tehran has turned into something else
Supporters who sing when it goes badly are supporters. Supporters who gather afterwards are a problem, and everybody inside the building knows which of the two this now is.
Market4 Jan 2027
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at Naft Tehran, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad4 Jan 2027
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Naft Tehran may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Squad4 Jan 2027
Mohammad Daneshgar was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Squad4 Jan 2027
Words at Naft Tehran training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Amir Mohammad Panahi is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
The terraces4 Jan 2027
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 18-year-old it feels ownership of. Mehdi Dejagah has it now, and everything he does for the rest of his time here will be measured against the goodwill he was handed for free.
Squad4 Jan 2027
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match28 Nov 2026
0‑3 to Sepahan, and it was every bit as bad as the number suggests. There are defeats you argue about and defeats you apologise for; this was the second kind.
Match28 Nov 2026
6 matches without a win for Rah Ahan
The run now stands at 6, and the questions being asked around Rah Ahan are no longer polite ones.
Squad30 Nov 2026
“I was told what my role would be, and I signed on that basis. It has not happened.” A grievance with a date attached is the hardest kind to settle.
Squad30 Nov 2026
Shahriar Noorafkan was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Squad30 Nov 2026
The manager makes an example of Ali Torabi
“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.
Player ratings30 Nov 2026
Successful dribbles: 19. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad9 Nov 2026
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 37 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Squad9 Nov 2026
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 7 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Match7 Nov 2026
6 matches without a win for Naft Tehran
The run now stands at 6, and the questions being asked around Naft Tehran are no longer polite ones.
Player ratings9 Nov 2026
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 7.89 at 33, and nobody on the pitch was better.
Squad9 Nov 2026
Mehdi Dejagah: that is not what I was promised
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Naft Tehran have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Squad9 Nov 2026
Mohammad Daneshgar was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad2 Nov 2026
A knee injury of the worst kind for Ehsan Jahanbakhsh
36 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Rah Ahan lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Match31 Oct 2026
Beaten 0‑4 by Persepolis, and beaten everywhere it matters. The inquest starts on the training pitch on Monday morning.
Squad2 Nov 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Shahriar Noorafkan, and the manager let it.
Squad2 Nov 2026
Words at Rah Ahan training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Nicolás Varela is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Boardroom2 Nov 2026
Nobody left the Rah Ahan dressing room in a hurry
The door stayed shut a long time after the final whistle. What was said in there is between them; whether it worked is between them and Saturday.
Loan watch2 Nov 2026
“I am grateful for the games, but I did not become a footballer to be somebody else's spare part.” He wants to be at Rah Ahan, and 1 appearances in 9 say he has earned the hearing.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Player ratings5 Oct 2026
Successful dribbles: 36. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad5 Oct 2026
Shahriar Noorafkan was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Match3 Oct 2026
It finished 1‑0, and it was Majid Karimi’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to Rah Ahan.
Squad5 Oct 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Vahid Taremi, and the manager let it.
Player ratings5 Oct 2026
Some games turn on a moment; this one turned on a man. 7.79 on the card, and the Rah Ahan support went home talking about one name.
Loan watch5 Oct 2026
“I watch every Rah Ahan game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Naft Tehran runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
Squad5 Oct 2026
Karim Khodadad falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Squad5 Oct 2026
When it matters, Ali Torabi plays
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
Player ratings5 Oct 2026
Headers, blocks, tackles, interceptions — 10 of them, and not one goal behind him. The sort of performance that never makes a highlight reel and wins football matches.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad31 Aug 2026
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 9 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Match29 Aug 2026
Chastening afternoon for Naft Tehran
A 0‑3 beating by Esteghlal was the sort of result that empties a stadium long before the final whistle.
Match29 Aug 2026
5 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
Squad31 Aug 2026
Mohammad Daneshgar was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Squad31 Aug 2026
Words at Naft Tehran training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Amir Mohammad Panahi is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Squad31 Aug 2026
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.